Oh, this is SO delicious. Dylan Byers at Politico writes[4](hat tip[5]):

The Washington Post has erroneously reported that Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and former Fox News contributor, is joining the Qatari-owned news network Al Jazeera.

“Late last week Al Jazeera America announced the former vice-presidential candidate would be joining their news network,” the Post’s Suzi Parker writes today[6] in a post on the She The People blog, titled “Sarah Palin’s plan to reach ‘millions of devoutly religious people’ through al-Jazeera.”

Parker calls this “a cautionary tale about what can happen when politics and celebrity meet.”

But Parker’s report is a cautionary tale about what can happen when writers cite satirical websites, such as The Daily Currant.

On Feb. 4, the Daily Currant published a satirical piece[7] stating that Palin was “bouncing back by joining the fledgling Al Jazeera America news network as a host and commentator.” Parker cites this piece and uses quotes that the Currant attributes to Palin, including:

“As you all know, I’m not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general,” Palin told the Web site The Daily Currant. “But I met with the folks at Al-Jazeera and they told me they reach millions of devoutly religious people who don’t watch CBS or CNN. That tells me they don’t have a liberal bias.”

Al Jazeera spokesman Stan Collender confirmed to POLITICO that Sarah Palin is not joining the global news network, which — as Parker notes — was recently called “an anti-American terror mouthpiece” on Fox News, where Palin was a contributor.

As National Review Online’s Nathaniel Botwinick notes[8], it would appear that the Washington Post will believe anything unflattering about Sarah Palin (shocking!). Here’s more from the original piece. It’s fun to know that as you’re reading it, it’s not true but the writer so passionately thought it was and used the satirical piece as a gotcha that in reality wasn’t:

The Sarah Palin Story is a cautionary tale about what can happen when politics and celebrity meet.

Fox News and their once-upon-a-time darling Palin recently parted ways after three years. But never fear. Palin has a new media outlet by which to share her commentary.